cost sb dear

Definition

› to cause someone to spend a lot of money or lose money: Buying that second-hand car without having it checked by a mechanic first cost us dear.Costing too muchExpensive and luxurious › to cause someone a lot of problems: Later that year he attacked a photographer, an incident that cost him dear.Damaging and spoilingDestroying and demolishing

(Definition of cost sb dear from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

You are looking at an entry to do with Costing too much, but you might be interested in these topics from the Finance topic area:

Synonyms and related words:

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

to express disagreement or refuse to do something

Read our blog about how the English language behaves.

Find words and meanings that have just started to be used in English, and let us know what you think of them.